One of the fastest growing areas of communications technology is related to automobile network solutions. The demand and potential for wireless vehicle communication, networking and diagnostics services have recently increased. Although many vehicles on the road today have limited wireless communication functions, such as unlocking a door and setting or disabling a car alarm, new vehicles offer additional wireless communication systems that help personalize comfort settings, run maintenance and diagnostic functions, place telephone calls, access call center information, update controller systems, determine vehicle location, assist in tracking vehicle after a theft of the vehicle and provide other vehicle related services. Drivers can call telematic call centers and receive navigational, concierge, emergency, and location services, as well as other specialized help as locating the geographical location of a stolen vehicle and honking the horn of a vehicle when the owner cannot locate it in a large parking garage.
Controllers and software play a large role in the automation of an increasing number of vehicle functions. With the constant evolution of technologies, upgrades are frequently made to vehicle software modules to provide additional vehicle features or improve the performance of existing vehicle functions. The installation of upgraded software modules are currently handled manually by vehicle technicians at a vehicle dealership. Often times, there are long time gaps between visits to a vehicle dealership. As a result, the vehicle may not be available for a vehicle technician to manually upgrade the vehicle software modules to newer versions of vehicle software modules thereby depriving the vehicle owner of software upgrades and improved functionality of the vehicle.
Also malfunctioning telematics units are replaced in vehicles with new telematics units or telematics units taken from other vehicles. Newly installed telematics unit require the installation of software module specific to the vehicle. In many cases, controller operated vehicle devices require replacement. The replacement of such vehicle devices often require the reinstallation of software modules necessary for the operation of the vehicle devices. The manual installation of vehicle specific software can require costly vehicle technician time and may be time consuming.
It is desirable therefore, to provide a method and system for vehicle software configuration management, that overcomes the challenges and obstacles described above.